Fearsome
by Aryndiel
Summary: Wendy is scared of all sorts of things. Gajeel isn't afraid of anything. Right? Well, maybe that's not entirely true...


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Fairy Tail series or any of the characters.

**Summary: **Wendy is scared of lots of things. Gajeel isn't afraid of anything. Right? A time-wasting discussion in the guild leads to a startling revelation.

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**Fearsome**

"Hey Wendy, who scares you?"

_You do_, Wendy was tempted to answer, as she tried to calm her heart rate. Natsu had sprung at her from out of nowhere to ask this question, startling her quite badly. She hadn't been expecting a surprise attack the moment she walked into the guild hall (although, out of habit, she _had_ been on the lookout for flying bodies and/or furniture — not an unusual occurrence, in Fairy Tail).

To be honest, she couldn't imagine being truly _afraid_ of Natsu, so she didn't tell him that first thought that had popped into her head. It would probably hurt his feelings... or possibly delight him. But he seemed to be expecting a response, so she gamely tried to answer, despite the fact that the question was sort of personal. After all, maybe her answer was important.

"Well, I... I guess I'm sort of scared of dark mages... and bandits... and dentists... and that old man who made his dog chase me for taking a shortcut through his back yard..."

"What old man? Tell me where to find him!" Natsu demanded, looking ready to start a fight. "Wait, dentists? Really?"

"Natsu, don't jump out at people like that," Lucy scolded, pulling Wendy away from the hot-tempered fire breather. "Sorry, Wendy. Natsu doesn't explain himself very well. It was just something we were all talking about to pass the time, since there are hardly any jobs, and all the good ones are taken."

"We were talking about who in Fairy Tail scares us the most," Gray spoke up, as Lucy led Wendy closer to the tables where most of the guild was gathered.

"We just finished deciding that no one is allowed to pick the Master or Gildarts," Levy said. "Since they're just so absurdly powerful. Oh, and Laxus is off limits, as well."

Laxus appeared to be trying not to look too pleased with himself at being included in this rather elite category.

"Erza should be off limits, too," muttered Gray.

"I don't frighten people," Erza said, giving him a threatening glare.

"R-right!" he squeaked.

"I'll go first!" Natsu exclaimed, apparently unfazed by the thought of revealing his fears in front of everyone he knew. "I'm most scared of Lucy, because I can't always work out when she's mad at me until she's already kicked me in the face, so I never know when it's coming. That's scarier than Erza. I always know when Erza's angry and wants to beat me up, because it's pretty much all the time."

Lucy looked torn between shock and exasperation. As far as Wendy had ever noticed, Lucy's temper seemed to be triggered by having her privacy invaded or her possessions destroyed (or her shirt reduced to charcoal, which sort of fell into both categories). This wasn't a difficult concept to grasp, but Natsu remained persistently clueless, no matter how often it was explained to him.

"Well, I'm afraid of Mirajane," Cana announced. "Because she controls the booze."

"If you were a bit smarter, you'd be scared of Mirajane because she's possessed by demons and tries to kill things when she's pissed off," Laxus scoffed.

"Oh, I'm not _possessed by_ the demons," Mirajane interjected serenely. "It's more like _I'm_ possessing _them_."

"That's even worse," Laxus said.

"Are you admitting that you're scared of her?" Cana challenged him.

Laxus scowled. "I'm not playing this stupid game," he muttered, which wasn't a real answer.

Wendy decided that this meant _yes_, and took careful notice of the faint blush on his cheeks as Mirajane smiled sweetly at him from behind the bar. That was _interesting_.

"So who are you scared of, Wendy?" Natsu asked, apparently not forgetting that he hadn't gotten an acceptable answer out of her before.

"Oh... um, I suppose I'm a little bit scared of Evergreen-san," Wendy admitted, smiling apologetically at the woman in question. "Sorry! I know you're really a nice person, I promise!"

Wendy's interactions with Evergreen were fairly limited, aside from the fact that they both lived in Fairy Hills. The woman had unnerving powers, and a habit of being kind of bossy and argumentative, but she could be perfectly nice when she wanted to be, and Wendy had never been treated unkindly by her. Wendy felt a bit silly for being afraid at all.

But apparently, her fear wasn't unique.

"Oh, thank God! I thought maybe I was the only one," Levy spoke up. "I still remember being turned to stone! It was awful!" She shuddered at the memory.

Luckily, Evergreen didn't seem upset about being thought of as frightening. In fact, she looked quite flattered. Maybe it had something to do with her competitive attitude towards Erza, who was possibly the most terrifying woman in existence.

"I don't know who to pick," Romeo said, furrowing his brow. "Everyone was always nice to me when I was little. I haven't really had a reason to be afraid of anyone."

Wendy thought this sounded like a wonderful problem to have.

"What about you, Lucy?" Erza asked her teammate.

"Oh... I guess... Bixlow!" Lucy answered, with an air of having picked his name at random. "You know... the whole soul possession thing, scary... haha..."

But as soon as Erza had turned her attention away, Lucy shook her head vigorously and pointed at Erza with wide eyes. Gray nodded in very definite agreement, but froze when Erza nearly spotted him. Meanwhile, Juvia, Bisca, Max, and Jet were all nodding as well, behind the armour mage's back.

"A man isn't ashamed to admit when he's afraid of his older sister!" Elfman announced, loud and proud.

Mirajane looked amused, as if her enormous little brother had just done something silly and cute. Lisanna just shook her head with a smile.

"I wanna know who Gajeel is scared of," Natsu announced. "I bet it'll make me laugh!"

Gajeel snorted scornfully. "The only person who worries me is the one you're all too stupid to be afraid of. The most dangerous person in the room, in fact."

This surprised Wendy, because she hadn't imagined that Gajeel was particularly frightened of anything or anyone. And if there was someone who could scare Gajeel so much that he'd actually admit to being worried... clearly it must be someone who Wendy should be very, _very_ concerned about.

"Who? Tell me, so I can fight'em!" Natsu yelled in excitement, smacking his flaming fist into his other palm.

"If you wanna fight the girlie, it's your fucking funeral," Gajeel answered, turning his gaze towards Wendy. "I wouldn't risk it."

Wendy stood, stunned, as every eye in the room landed on her. She felt herself blush under so much attention. What on earth was Gajeel talking about?

"You're scared of Wendy?" asked Gray, incredulous. "But she hasn't got a mean bone in her body! She's not about to hurt anyone!"

Wendy knew that this was just a polite way of saying that she wasn't remotely threatening. It bothered her sense of pride, but considering her small size, deferential attitude, and fear of things like dentists and senior citizens with dogs, she couldn't help but agree with Gray's assessment. She couldn't scare anyone if she tried.

"That's what you think," Gajeel said. "But it's not something to laugh about. Hasn't anyone ever wondered why I never rough her up the way I do the rest of ya?"

"Because she doesn't piss you off?" asked Cana.

"Because she might refuse to heal you the next time you totally wreck yourself in a fight?" Levy offered, obviously thinking back to Tenrou Island.

"Because beating up a twelve-year-old girl would make you look like even more of an asshole than you already are?" suggested Gray, grinning.

Gajeel narrowed his eyes. But instead of getting angry, he ignored their comments, which was everyone's first clue that he was being serious.

"It probably won't come as a shock for anyone to hear that I was a violent little shit when I was a kid," he said. "But even at my worst, no matter what kind of trouble I got into, Metalicana always said he was glad that he picked a boy to train and not a girl. The way he explained it, dragon slayers act pretty much like real dragons. Males start out aggressive and destructive, and while it ramps up a bit once puberty hits, they don't change a whole lot."

Most of the guild glanced at Natsu at least once during Gajeel's speech, apparently comparing what they could recall about him as a child with his current behaviour. No one seemed to disagree with Gajeel's description.

Gajeel went on. "But females, they're the dangerous ones. They start out all friendly and docile, and then the hormones start kickin' in, and they turn into _monsters_." He eyed Wendy again. "And you're what, twelve, almost thirteen? Yeah, should be any day now."

"What'll happen _any day now_?" asked Lisanna, studying Wendy curiously.

"Somethin' will set her off, and —" Gajeel snapped his fingers "— she'll just snap."

A great silence followed this pronouncement. Everyone was staring at Wendy speculatively. She found herself wondering if there really was some sort of terrible beast lurking deep within her, and if so, why Grandine hadn't thought to warn her about it. Although to be fair, Grandine had left when Wendy was only five years old, which was probably way too early for a discussion about the more terrifying details of puberty.

"You're suggesting that Wendy-chan is going to..." Levy searched for the words, "...to go on some sort of... rampage?"

Gajeel leaned back in his chair, nodding soberly. "That's why I'm nice. I want to be one of the survivors." He looked thoughtful. "I expect Salamander will be one of the first to die."

"What?!" Natsu protested. "No way! I'm always nice to Wendy!"

Lucy looked at him with a doubtful eye. "Really?" she asked sceptically. "Because just last week, you wrestled her to the floor, sat on her, and tickled her half to death."

"Yep," agreed Natsu cheerfully.

"You didn't let her go until she bit you!"

Natsu's eyes lit up as he broke into a grin. "I bled all over the place!" he enthused, sounding bizarrely happy about it. "Look, I've still got puncture wounds! It might even scar!"

He proudly showed off the marks on his forearm to anyone who would look. Wendy still felt slightly guilty about it, but if she hadn't bitten him, he probably would have gone on tickling her until she peed her pants. Desperate times called for desperate measures. And anyway, he certainly didn't seem to hold a grudge. If anything, he'd probably continue to torment her in the future just to see what other violent reactions she might demonstrate.

Some of the others were looking at Wendy with a new wariness, however. She could almost hear them thinking, _Wendy bit Natsu? Is it starting already?_ She couldn't blame them, though, because she was starting to wonder the same thing.

Gajeel sighed, sounding resigned. "It's no use running away, either. She's got all our scents. There's nothing we can do but wait."

The conversation ended on that rather ominous note. No one seemed very interested in talking about their fears anymore, and they all drifted off to other areas of the guild hall. It took a long time for the conversations in the room to start to sound natural and relaxed again.

When everything seemed to be back to normal, and Wendy could move without anyone getting jumpy at the sight of her, she sat herself down beside Gajeel at his table in the corner, and stared at him suspiciously. Because she'd been thinking hard about what he'd told everyone, and something about it sounded a bit _off_. Especially the part about her being able to find them all by scent if they ran away. Dragon slayers weren't bloodhounds, after all. And Gajeel knew as well as Wendy did that they couldn't follow a scent trail that was more than a couple of days old, even under the best conditions.

"Gajeel-san, did Metalicana _really_ tell you that?" she asked quietly, not wanting to be overheard.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, taking a long drink before setting down his mug on the table and turning to face her.

"Could be," he allowed. The corner of his mouth twitched. "Or maybe I just wanted to see how gullible they all are."

Wendy gaped at him, as relief and surprise flooded through her. Then she started giggling.

"You jerk! I was scared it might be true!" she told him, keeping her voice low.

He grinned wickedly. "Yeah, well, either way, they're lookin' at ya with a bit more respect, so does it matter? Don't worry, you don't have to thank me!" He looked smug.

"Gajeel-san!" she protested, mock-outraged. "That was awful!"

"Admit it, it was pretty funny," he answered. "And why the hell are you so formal with the likes of me, callin' me Gajeel-san all the time?"

Wendy considered the matter. Juvia was closer to Gajeel than most people, and always referred to him as "Gajeel-kun", but that wouldn't sound right at all coming from Wendy. Most people in the guild just called him by his name without any honorific, but that didn't feel right either.

Wendy tilted her head thoughtfully. "Gajeel-nii?" she tested.

He looked surprised for a second, but shrugged it off. "Whatever," he said, looking away, and she realised that he was pleased, and embarrassed by the fact that he felt that way.

So she smiled and hugged him, flustering him even more. He froze, arms suspended awkwardly in mid-air, but didn't push her away.

"Well, you _are_ a pretty awesome big brother," she commented, her voice muffled against his shirt. "And I guess it was a pretty awesome joke, too."

Then, without moving away, she pulled back one hand and punched him in the ribs. She hit him hard, because she knew that he'd barely feel it. "But did you really have to announce to everyone that I'm going through puberty?" she complained. "It's embarrassing!"

But she continued hugging him, because she wasn't really mad.

"Gihihi!" He laughed at her, the vibration rumbling through his chest, and to Wendy's happy surprise, he put his arms around her and squeezed, returning her hug.

But that surprise was nothing compared to her shock the next moment, when he deliberately overturned his chair and sent them both crashing to the floor. Wendy's fall was cushioned when she landed on top of him, but it still left her feeling disoriented and confused. And then, to her alarm and bewilderment, Gajeel started screaming like he was being murdered.

"Arrgh! She's killing me! Run! Ahh! Nooo!"

And the guild erupted into panic.

"Gajeel-nii! Stop teasing!" Wendy wailed, her voice drowned out by the hysteria surrounding them.

By the time their guildmates realized that they'd been played, Wendy and Gajeel were both laughing much too hard to even try to stand up.

Which, unfortunately, left them pretty much defenceless.

**:Owari:**

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**Translations:**

_-san_ - default honorific indicating respect, polite.

_-chan_ - honorific used to refer to children, or between close female friends.

_-kun_ - more casual honorific (usually male), not deferential, sometimes refers to a junior ranking person, but in Juvia's case it indicates affection and close friendship for a person of equal rank. It would be very strange for someone as young as Wendy to refer to Gajeel this way.

_-nii_ - older brother.

_-no honorific_ - often indicates very close relationship, otherwise considered rude. Very casual. Half the guild doesn't bother with honorifics when talking to or about each other (but they grew up together and are practically a family).

**A/N:** Not much to say about this story. It's just a bit of fun, really! I hope you were amused! I enjoy reading your comments. And as always, let me know if you spot any typos!


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